Clearwater Jobs Lost during April

Only a couple hundred Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater jobs were lost overall during April, as the area's unemployment rate continued to decline.

During April, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area's unemployment rate decreased from 12.8 percent to 11.9 percent, following a decrease from 13.2 percent during March. Despite that decrease, however, the area's rate is still higher than the national average of 9.9 percent.

The Clearwater area had a total non-farm employment of 1,126,100 during April, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,126,300 workers during March and a 2.1 percent decrease from last year.

Seven industries managed to see a monthly increase in employment during April, including: construction by 600 jobs; leisure and hospitality by 400 jobs; government by 300 jobs; manufacturing by 200 jobs; financial activities by 200 jobs; information by 100 jobs; and professional and business services by 100 jobs.

Employment in the mining and logging industry remained even over the month and year with 500 jobs.

Even though it lost workers over the month, the education and health services industry was one of only two sectors that saw yearly employment increases during April. The industry employed 175,700 workers during April, down from 176,300 workers during March, but a 2.2 percent increase from last year.

The government industry was the only other sector to see its employment increase over the year, growing by .6 percent between April 209 and April 2010 to 159,400 workers.

The construction industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year, losing 11.5 percent of its workforce during the 12-month period, to 53,800 workers during April.

Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment include:

• Manufacturing by 8.2 percent
• Information by 7.1 percent
• Leisure and hospitality by 4.3 percent
• Other services by 2.3 percent
• Trade, transportation and utilities by 2.2 percent
• Financial activities by 1.9 percent
• Professional and business services by .7 percent